Menu

Monthly Archives: May 2016

I hope you’re having a wonderful bank holiday? I haven’t been up to much as yet, but we’re off to Legoland tomorrow for Fred’s birthday, and I’m so excited! It’s a surprise and he has no idea about it. I can’t wait to see his little face when we arrive! 🙂

So today I have the gorgeous Marc Jacobs Splash collection of fragrances to share with you. The 2016 Splash collection contains four previously released fragrances which due to popular demand, have been re-designed and re-released as limited editions this year. The collection includes four gender-free fragrances – Rain and Cottonfrom 2006, Cucumber from 2007 and Pear from 2008, which come presented in simple chic square glass bottles, and as a collection, perfectly captures the essence of summer.

Inspired by the original Marc Jacobs’ Splash Collection, the four favorites recapture the essence of summer. Crisp to the senses, yet mellow in color, each Splash indulges in the simple pleasures of the easy-going, light hearted spirit of Marc Jacobs.

Starting with Pear Splash –this is a deliciously fresh and juicy pear scent, but not as sweet as you might expect. This is very much a gender-free fragrance, though it definitely captures the essence of summer, the inclusion of teak and musk prevents it from being too sweet and feminine.

Top notes: Pear, Lemon and Bergamot.

Heart notes: Juniper, Gin and Freesia.

Base notes: Teak, Amber and Musk.

Next we have Rain Splash – this is probably my favourite out of the collection. Rain Splash is a beautifully clean, fresh and revitalising scent, conveying the smell of fresh rain, grass and flowers on a bright summers day. Again this is neither masculine nor feminine, but suitable for everyone and anyone that loves a clean and fresh scent.

And Cotton Splash – described as the scent of freshness and purity, this fragrance is reminiscent of freshly washed and sun-dried cotton laundry. It’s a clean yet comforting scent capturing the ease and simplicity of summer in a bottle.

Top notes: Bergamot, Mandarin, Orange, Peach and Aquatic Accord.

Heart notes: Lavender, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley and Cotton Flower.

Base notes: White Suede, Blonde Woods, Musk and Sandalwood.

And lastly, Cucumber Splash – this is a wonderfully light and refreshing scent of freesia and cucumber. This is definitely another favourite of mine, this fragrance perfectly captures the juicy, watery essence of cucumber, giving a beautifully clean, crisp and fresh scent.

I really can’t get enough of these fragrances at the moment, they’re all just so fresh and easy to wear on a day to day basis – and they’re very affordable too at only £38.00 for 100ml – I highly recommend you check these out!

The Marc Jacobs Splash Collection of fragrances are £38.00 each and available now from .

To celebrate Her Majesty’s Official 90th Birthday in June, M&S will be launching their amazing Summer Beauty Box!

All you need to do is spend £40 at M&S on their Beauty, Clothing or Home products and you can purchase the M&S Summer Beauty Box for just £10. This box is filled with 14 deluxe sample and full size beauty treats worth over £120 – WHAT A COMPLETE BARGAIN!

There are some fantastic brands inside the box, including Rodial, REN, Nuxe, Stila and Nails inc to name but a few, and the products come in a range of generous sample sizes as well as a few full sized goodies too. There’s skincare, sun cream, hair products, nail polish, lip gloss and many more fantastic beauty products included…

Here’s what’s inside the box –

Swell Ultimate Protect & Renew Serum, 30ml.

Rodial Dragon’s Blood Hyaluronic Tonic, 50ml.

Philip Kingsley Citrus Sunshine Swimcap Cream, 50ml.

Pure Instant Radiance Hot Cloth Cleanser, 50ml.

REN Instant Firming Beauty Shot, 10ml.

Island Escape Eau de Toilette, 25ml.

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Dry Oil, 10ml.

Ultrasun Face SPF30 Sun Protection, 25ml.

PUR Correcting Primer Illuminate & Glow, 10ml.

M&S Sun Smart Sun Lotion SPF30, 50ml.

Leighton Denny Crystal Finish Quick Dry Top Coat, full size.

Stila Lip Glaze Raspberry, full size.

Nails Inc Gel One Coat Nail Polish in Chiltern Park, full size.

Percy & Reed Volumising No Oil Oil, 30ml.

I think this box really is an amazing bargain. For the sake of spending £40 at M&S – which can easily be done when picking up essentials, all these fab products can be yours for just £10 – perfect to treat yourself or a friend 🙂

The M&S Summer Beauty Box will be available from 9th-13th June at M&S Stores Nationwide and at .

Starting with Olive & Thyme – This is a wonderfully fresh and bright fragrance, it’s distinctly herbal in nature with a sharp citrus top note which you can’t fail to miss. This fragrance is inspired by the Mediterranean coast, including notes of olive leaf, citrus and musk, to whisk you away on an Italian adventure.

Next, Riviera Escape – This is definitely my favourite candle out of the collection. Riviera Escape is a beautiful clean and fresh coastal scent, evoking glittering promenades, full with hillsides of beautiful blossoms glowing in the sun. This scent instantly takes me to the coast and I can’t get enough of it!

And Sea Sage & Salt – Now this fragrance is described as ‘warm and inviting, sage mingles with the clean, fresh scent of sea salt…like a relaxing walk along the shore’ but I have to say I really don’t get this at all. To me, this candle smells like men’s aftershave! It really reminds me of my dad for some reason! This is definitely a masculine scent, and not really one for me unfortunately.

And lastly Summer Peach – This scent is almost mouthwateringly juicy – I mean my mouth literally nearly waters when I smell this candle! Fans of sweet scents will love the Summer Peach candle – echoing ripe peaches straight from the orchard, warmed by the sun and begging for that first juicy bite, this fragrance is the epitome of summer.

I have another fantastic new product from MAC to share with you today – this is the Versicolour Stain, a liquid lip colour offering the ultimate fusion of a gloss and a stain in one product.

The ultimate fusion of gloss + stain in one fluid formula that melts onto lips for a full-on glassy shine that lasts and lasts and lasts. Infused with emollient oils, its creamy, lightweight texture stays bright, lustrous and so comfortable without ever cracking or peeling. Like an energy shot for your lips, a range of resilient hues live long into the day (and night).

I’ve been trying out shade Preserving Passion, which is described as a deep wine colour. The colour payoff wasn’t quite as intense as I’d initially expected, but overall it is a fab little lip stain, giving a medium colour payoff with a nice glossy finish. This did last all day on my lips, which is great news, but I should also note that the formula felt quite drying as the day went on – which can often be the case with stain products. So you’ll just want to make sure your lips are in tip top condition before using this product 🙂

The Versicolour Stains are available in 16 bright and intense shades –

After a few days off with a horrible sickness virus that nearly landed me in hospital, I feel like I’m finally back in the land of the living – just. I’m not quite 100% yet but I’m nearly better, and I’m now starting to catch up with all the blogging I’ve missed from the last few days!

When it comes to beauty products, fragrance has to be the most personal – what one person loves where it comes to scent, another will hate. And when you finally find a fragrance that you love, most stick with it for years. You’ll know by now that I’m a total fragrance fanatic, and I really am beyond excited as I think I may have just found my new signature scent!

Jeroboam is a brand new niche scent company, with a stunning range of five musk-based extrait de parfum scents on offer. Dscribed as a dynamic new fusion of tradition and modernism, from the Jovoy perfume house founder, François Henin, and renowned perfumer Vanina Muracciole, the story behind this collection starts with François feeing that he had become anosmic to musk – meaning he wasn’t able to smell it any more. He asked Vanina to isolate some musks for him, to experiment with them and then share her findings with him, and the result was a collection of five breathtaking enigmatic musk scents…

Vanina chose to name the fragrances in Esperanto (the most widely spoken constructed language in the world, so Wikipedia tells me) to emphasize their universality. Here are the five fragrances –

Origino – this is a base fragrance to be worn alone or under other fragrances,Originois described as an exquisite cocktail of enigmatic musks with extraordinary longevity –

And lastly – Hauto – Hautomeans skin, and this floral solar musk is an invitation to experience the fragrance of the skin. With its stunning tuberose heart, this is a fragrance to be worn with confidence!

Hauto is the one fragrance I’ve tried from this range, and if this is a benchmark for the rest of the collection, I literally cannot wait to try the others. Hauto is probably one of the most beautiful fragrances I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling, and I’m completely in love with it!

I don’t think I can describe in words how wonderful it is – I can say is, if you’re a fan of Tuberose and Musk scents, you need this in your life, it’s simply stunning.

TheJeroboam collection of fragrances is available at now, priced at £80 for 30ml extrait de parfum.

MAC are back on the blog today with another collection of fantastic new products! The Pro Longwear Waterproof Colour Sticks have just launched in time for summer, and they really are everything you need to create a multitude of waterproof, long lasting eye looks.

These larger than life jumbo eye pencils come in a range of 21 shades, including both matte and sparkling frost finishes. The formula is super creamy and easy to manipulate, and the style of both the pencil and the formula of the product means you can use the Pro Longwear Waterproof Colour Sticks to create unlimited eye looks.

You can apply the pencils with a light touch and easily smudge out for an all over medium intensity colour on the lid, or use the product more heavily for an intense, full on colour look. You can also use as a chunky statement eye liner – these pencils are amazingly versatile so the possibilities are almost endless! I should also mention the pigmentation, which really is fantastic – described as ‘high definition colour’ you can get medium to full coverage with just one swipe of the pencil across the lid.

I also love that the formala is long lasting and waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about your makeup smudging around your eyes throughout the day. These pencils promise 24-hour long wear too, which is very impressive indeed – I’m not sure that anyone would really keep their makeup on that long, but even so it’s handy to bear in mind! I have four of the 21 shades –

Cinder Black – deep intense black

Frisky Blue – bright cobalt blue

Sand Bar – soft caramel nude

Sweet Praline – soft light peach

I love shades Frisky Blue and Sand Bar especially, I’m looking forward to experimenting with these over the next few weeks!

MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof Colour Sticks are £16.00 each and available now at MAC.

Now you know how much I love rose gold – I know it’s such a blogger cliche but I really don’t care! So when the Rosie Huntington-Whitely for Autograph collection arrived at M&S, I was in some sort of crazy rose gold beauty heaven! The collection is SO beautiful, as well as being affordable, I couldn’t wait to try the products out and tell you all about them…

The exclusive Rosie for Autograph make up range has been developed in collaboration with Rosie Huntington Whiteley. Combining Rosie’s make up tips and secrets with high quality ingredients, this range is developed to deliver amazing results. Inspired by Rosie’s career as a model, actress and her love of vintage, at the heart of this exclusive beauty collection lies Rosie’s natural, glamorous look.

The collection contains a massive range of colour products, including pretty much everything you can imagine – there’s a lovely selection of eyshadow palettes, products for highlighting and bronzing, some gorgeous looking lipsticks, and a lovely collection of fragrances.

It’s also worth mentioning that this range of products is ‘Made with integrity‘, with neither the products nor their ingredients having been tested on animals.

Starting with the Eyeshadow Palette (£18.00) – there are four options available of this eyeshadow quad, all with neutral, easy to wear shades – I have Copper Gold Rush, which includes a light muted lilac matte shade, a mauve pink shimmer, a mid coffee brown cool toned shade, and a light creamy pink.

The formula of the shadows is fine and creamy, and they really do apply and blend like a dream!

Next is the Cream Blush (£14.00) – this is described as a silky soft weightless cream blush, that blends and builds easily to an undetectable powder finish – and it does exactly that. It has a wonderfully creamy velvet texture, that applies like a cream but gives a powder finish on the skin. I have the shade Camisole Blush which is gorgeous muted peachy coral, perfect for summer.

The Amazing Radiance Cream (£18.00) is a light weight, brightening cream created to add instant radiance to your complexion. Much like a strobe cream, or even a brightening moisturiser, the Amazing Radiance Cream gives a hint of glow and sheen to the skin, perfect for adding luminosity before applying your foundation. I should just point out this has a very light, easy to wear texture, and you can easily wear this on it’s own, or under foundation – this is a must have for a natural looking dewy glow.

The Bronzer (£18.00) comes in two shades – Magic Contour, the lightest shade which I have above, and Bronzed Beauty which is slightly darker. Magic Contour is the perfect bronzer for very light to light skin tones – which can be notoriously difficult to find the right shade for. This product gives a really natural sun-kissed look to the skin, without making skin look muddy or orange. The formula is silky and soft, giving a slight soft-focus effect for a smoother looking complexion.

And lastly the Cream Eyeshadow Stick (£12.50) again this comes in four neutral shades, I have Almond Eyes, a beautiful champagne beige shade with a metallic finish. It glides on the lid really easily with no tugging, and blends out to give either a sheer shimmery wash of colour, or you can easily build up the product for a more intense look. The finish is long-lasting and crease resistant.

Overall it’s just a stunning collection, the packaging is gorgeous, as well as being fantastic quality, and the products are well worth their pricing. I can’t get enough of the Amazing Radiance Cream and Bronzer right now!

Post navigation

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

About the Blog

Thou Shalt Not Covet… is a blog dedicated to my obsession with beautiful things, from fashion and make up, to lifestyle and travel. I will also be including product reviews, and anything else I want to share with the world!